American Express

With an increasing number of cloud-based point-of-sale systems now offering their own loyalty tools — and some offering integration with existing rewards programs — merchants have fewer and fewer reasons to pay for separate software systems when managing their small to mid-size businesses. Here are six point-of-sale systems that merchants can use to market their businesses and encourage repeat visits…

Small businesses need to think like the brands they are. They should follow the same protocol now being established by content marketers: create a portfolio of content; use the new distribution channels and social media to get the word out; and learn how to curate….

Card-connected platforms help merchants promote customer loyalty without introducing any extra steps or hurdles to the traditional payment process. Customers swipe their cards just as they normally would, and the rewards or discounts they earn are automatically reflected on their next credit card or bank statements. Here are six card-connected programs that merchants can use to promote loyalty and customer engagement…

As part of a new partnership with American Express, Twitter announced this week that it will now use its ability to draw attention to certain topics to help advertise local businesses. Basically, this means that in addition to the “promoted tweets” seen by users, now ads from small businesses will also appear in their feeds…

In a video interview with BIA/Kelsey, online pioneer, Groupon Vice Chair and ILM East Keynoter noted: “It is a much bigger idea than a simple directory or city guide or newspaper.” The next marketplaces are for “socially astute audiences,” he said…

American Express just taken another major step into local. The credit card company has partnered with Twitter to create a program that allows consumers to receive discounts directly applied to their accounts — all for the price of a single hashtag in a single tweet (after a quick, one-time visit to AmEx’s website to sync a card)…

Last week, Foursquare updated its business page, adding case studies for merchants and use studies for brands, and generally improving the user experience. Since updating its merchant platform in the spring, the location-based social networking company has quietly launched an offensive to create a viable B2B component in their business, laying the groundwork for future monetization…

Banks now know more than practically anyone about consumer spending behaviors and they are rapidly entering the digital marketing and local commerce space. Many have rolled out programs that leverage technology to offer customers truly digital deals from merchants of all types via their existing credit or debit cards…

The best or biggest deal, assertion, investment or other strategy this week. Who: Facebook What: Taking another approach to location-based services Just a week after it said it would abandon its location-based service Places in favor of a new strategy, Facebook announced that it was getting out of the deals business. Facebook Deals was only around […]

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Foursquare has launched an update that allows anyone to sign up for a brand page that can push tips and check-ins to followers on Foursquare, as well as to Facebook and Twitter. Users had already been able to add new locations to the service, but, until yesterday, there was no good way for most places to actively reach out to users. (ReadWriteWeb)…

Despite the regular carping from pundits on the sidelines, LivingSocial believes it can show that daily deals are a good deal for businesses, and thus a sustainable long term industry. The company has released the results of a recent survey to bolster its argument. (Business Insider)…

It’s become clear that the two hottest areas of digital media — deals and mobile — are colliding. Mobile payments (i.e. Google Wallet) are meanwhile closing the loop on decades-old deal redemption and tracking challenges. This has led to another important variable: Data. More specifically, mobile payment technologies open the door for more comprehensive consumer purchase data, which can fold back into the equation for more targeted deal delivery…

Who isn’t getting into the daily deals space? That’s becoming a tough question to answer. The latest company to get on the bandwagon in AmEx–and it looks like they have some very intelligent twists on the concept that will help convince customers to spend more.

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.…

Foursquare is introducing its largest partnership to date: a national deal with American Express to offer discounts to cardholders when they check in on their cellphone at certain shops and restaurants. Substantial deals like those being offered to American Express cardholders may bring Foursquare and other location-based services further into the mainstream. (New York Times)…

Foursquare simply doesn’t have the salesforce to craft the same kind of deals that Groupon can. Groupon’s deals tend to be more alluring with deeper discounts. AmEx is helping Foursquare here by sourcing many of these deals itself through its own salesforce and existing relationships with local and national merchants, but it also gets to keep all the revenue. At least for now. (TechCrunch)…

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.…

According to a Rice University study, most businesses don’t feel any loyalty toward a particular daily deal site, and over the next few years daily deal sites will likely “have to settle for lower shares of revenues from businesses compared to their current levels, and it will be harder and more expensive for them to find viable candidates to fill their pipelines of daily deals.” (PaidContent)…

Groupon Inc. Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis’ venture firm is an investor in rival LivingSocial and has ties to its board, a relationship that could pose a conflict, according to corporate-governance experts. (Bloomberg)…